BP makes record loss and axes 7,000 jobs

a reply to: Edumakated

Reduce wages ? It's not like those people are going find other jobs in the sector when it's shrinking now is it and with the skills they have working rigs most of those skills aren't transferable to other sectors so they'll be competing for low skilled jobs which are already few & far between, thanks to many markets scaling back.

If it wasn't for the fines, the company would still be making money and to be honest they're lucky there's a company at all for the damage they've done to oceans and countries

As for the shareholders, boo effing hoo, investing in the stock market is a glorified form of gambling and it serves them right for investing in companies like BP

originally posted by: queenofswords

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: Discotech
a reply to: snchrnct

The underlying profit for the last three months, not counting the Gulf and other factors, was down from $2.2bn last time to $196m, much worse than analysts had expected.

So they're still technically making money, just the costs of their monumental screw ups are resulting in the loss

196 million profit is still a pretty nice profit I'm sure 90% of business in the world wouldn't scoff at that kind of profit

The reality is they're cutting 7,000 jobs because of greed, 196million obviously isn't enough profit so instead of keeping people in employment, contributing to an economy they'd rather slash those jobs in order maintain more attractive profit margins

I'm sure the pensioners, retirees, and other shareholders who own BP stock would disagree. Given the revenues of $350 billion, $196 million in profit is pretty paltry relative to their size.

Remember when all the progressives were complaining about oil companies making "windfall profits" and proposed all these extra taxes. Where are they now?

People just don't get it, Edumakated. I can just hear the Progressives and Socio-ecoeligionists chanting now...."yay! down with fossil fuels, let the oil companies eat sh**!"

The average person lives paycheck to paycheck, and these same people can't see why companies can't do the same thing...use all their reserves to hold on to employees who have little to do during a period of downturn. It looks to me like BP held on to them longer than they probably should have. These corporations' first fiduciary responsibility is to the shareholders. People just don't understand.

What is ironic is that the "shareholders" are often the very people complaining about big business. The union worker with a pension. The 401k holder. The guy with a mutual fund. The individual stock holder. I mean who do these people think the "shareholders" are?

The lack of basic business and economic understanding is just comical.

Businesses hire and fire people all day long. Jobs are by product of a profitable company. Companies don't just employee people for the hell of it. It is easy to keep nonproductive workers around when you are very profitable and a lot of companies do this, but once the red ink starts flowing, it becomes harder to justify the expense.

Retirements were forced to go into markets because banks savings interest is so low since I can remember. To force spending instead of saving. Putting your faith and trust in pyramid schemes, you take your chances. I have lots of friends who can't retire til they drop because of 08. We are a big country with consumers. Great time for small businesses. It took me a month to get a handyman to weekly work on our property.

originally posted by: MOMof3

Retirements were forced to go into markets because banks savings interest is so low since I can remember. To force spending instead of saving.

What does that have to do with BP or the Original Post? Interest rates are low because the Federal Reserve is artificially keeping them low. Once again showing that politics should stay away from economics.

a reply to: Edumakated

I would warrant a guess that many of these people never stop to think about their 401k "investment". They go to work, get a paycheck, part of it goes into something called a 401k they call "my retirement", and they never think about exactly what that investment is, and how it is managed, much less proactively involve themselves in its distribution.

The lack of basic business and economic understanding is just comical.

I would say 'sad' rather than comical.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

A loss to the oil business is a loss to a lot retirements, no? Banks keeps interest low on savings to keep interest on loans low, for like buying a house. To spend, no?

a reply to: dogstar23

I think you are right to an extent, however its not just the oil companies but all the companies that provide services to the oil companies that will suffer and make this tidal wave last a long time because there will be a lot of readjustment to be made.

Also its hard for businesses to get finance from banks in the UK to start up which has crippled many small business since I was a kid in this country.

originally posted by: MOMof3
A loss to the oil business is a loss to a lot retirements, no? Banks keeps interest low on savings to keep interest on loans low, for like buying a house. To spend, no?

No. BP's share prices are not related to savings account interest rates.

Sounds like a good time to buy oil stock.

"BP shareholder lawsuits. Dozens of investors and pension funds filed suit against BP, accusing the company of misleading shareholders and causing BP share values to plummet. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also investigating whether BP insiders profited from trading based on nonpublic information in the weeks and months after the spill."

www.nolo.com...

invest in solar and electric, create new jobs, let them keep buying a soon to be worthless resource and supporting the theocracy that is Saudi Arabia.

its clear we don't need BP or the middle east, we just need to move forward.

a reply to: snchrnct

BP makes record loss and axes 7,000 jobs - Well, I hope I have contributed to this result in some way.

Since the event in the Gulf of Mexico back in ...... ?, I have chosen to not buy petrol from BP to this day.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

It's impossible for politics to stay away from economics especially when it's on a multi trillion dollar a year budget and they are responsible for international trade agreements and taxes.

How did you even string that sentence together without laughing at yourself?

originally posted by: onequestion
How did you even string that sentence together without laughing at yourself?

Because it was a statement of fact and I tend to like those over the rampantly hysterical emotional hyperbole that some people tend to post. Care to dispute that politics and economics should have minimal interaction or do you want to ask another dopey question?

a reply to: snchrnct

I don't know about globally, but this is going to throw Alaskan workers for a loop. Hopefully the 7000 jobs are spread out across all operations and not condensed to a few of their operations.
This could potentially devastate the community and the state here.

I heard BP was planning to send all 7,000 people out to an oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico just in time for another Deepwater Horizon. Simply laying them off seems like a lucky break.